Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Here in Siberia we live next to a school that has a small courtyard for soccer and so on. Every so often I see an old man out running in circles around the area. It is his very own personal track. He wears a brightly colored jumpsuit with white tennis shoes. Nothing fancy--no Nike or Adidas here--just the will to get out there and do something good for his body.

Today as I was watching him I thought to myself how many times I have said, "If I only had a trainer at a gym, I could change. If I had someone to workout with, then it would happen for sure." We all can make excuses in life for why things do not happen, but in the end it is what is inside of us that will ultimately decide the life we live, not our surroundings or our circumstances. Each one of us has the ability to wake up each morning and start over. There is not a gym in the world that will do it for you, not a pill or a trainer that will take the place of one's determination to meet a goal.

I have now lost a total of 38 pounds and still have a long journey ahead of me, but I always want to remember that I am the only person in control of what I eat and how much I move. I was thinking today, "What will I do today to change myself for the better?" I love that each morning is a renewal of what we were, what we are and what we hope to be.

I heard someone once say that we should replace the phrase "I can't" with "I am not willing to" and see how many things in life we can in fact accomplish if we just make the effort.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

As I was posting a new blog for the day, I came across this and just LOVED it! Hope you enjoy it as well. Imagine if all of these people had listened to what others were saying as opposed to following their heart!

After Fred Astaire's first screen test, the memo from the testing director of MGM, dated 1933, said, "can't act! Slightly Bald! Can dance a little!" Astaire kept that memo over the fireplace in his Beverly Hills home.

An expert said of Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge. Lacks Motivation."

Socrates was called, "An immoral corrupter of youth."

When Peter J. Daniel was in the fourth grade, his teacher, Mrs. Phillips, constantly said, "Peter J. Daniel, you're no good, you're a bad apple and you're never going to amount to anything." Peter was totally illiterate until he was 26. A friend stayed up with him all night and read him a copy of Think and Grow Rich. Now he owns the street corners he used to fight on and just published his latest book: Mrs. Phillips, You Were Wrong.

Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, was encouraged to find work as a servant or seamstress by her family.

Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.

The parents of the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso wanted him to be an engineer. His teachers said he had no voice at all and could not sing.

Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Walt Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything.

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." He was expelled and refused admittance to Zurich Polytechnic School.

Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15 out of 22 in chemistry.

Isaac Newton did very poorly in grade school.

The sculptor Rodin's father said, "I have an idiot for a son." Described as the worst pupil in the school, Rodin failed three times to secure admittance to the school of art. His uncle called him uneducable.

Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, flunked out of college. He was described as "both unable and unwilling to learn."

Playwright Tennessee Williams was enraged when his play, Me, Vasha was not chosen in a class competition at Washington University where he was enrolled in English XVI. The teacher recalled that Williams denounced the judges' choices and their intelligence.

F. W. Woolworth's employers at the dry goods store said he had not enough sense to wait upon customers.

Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.

Babe Ruth, considered by sports historians to be the greatest athlete of all time and famous for setting the home run record, also holds the record for strikeouts.

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a "senior citizen."

Eighteen publishers turned down Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull, before Macmillan finally published it in 1970. By 1975 it had sold more than seven million copies in the U.S. alone.

Richard Hooker worked for seven years on his humorous war novel, M*A*S*H, only to have it rejected by 21 publishers before Morrow decided to publish it. It became a runaway bestseller, spawning a blockbusting movie and highly successful television series.

By Jack Canfield and Mark V. Hansenfrom A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass.... it's about learning how to dance in the rain!"

Those who know me well know that I LOVE quotes. I find they lift the spirit and bring back to focus what is most important in life when sometimes our fast pace can cause us to loose sight. One of my favorite quotes is from Chuck Swindoll. I wanted to share it will all of you. Hope you will be blessed as I have.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...let it be something good. ~Author Unknown~

This is how I want to live! This is how I want to be remembered! I hope each of us will make the most of this glorious day that God has blessed us with. I pray we have many more tomorrows, but if not, let us never say we did not truly live!!! I love all of you, each of you are in my hearts and prayers!